Quinn v. Kenyon

Citations

• 38 Cal. 499

Syllabus

<p>Pbe-emption Laws op the United States—Complaint Seeking Equitable Relief by One who Claims to have the Supebiob Right to Pbe-emption.— A complaint which seeks to obtain equitable relief on the ground of the superior claims of the plaintiff to the right of pre-emption of the land in controversy, must show that plaintiff was qualified to acquire a pre- emption right, and that all the steps necessary under the Act of Congress to acquire one were taken. Idem.—In such case, a complaint which fails to show that the plaintiff ever contemplated acquiring a pre-emption right, or that he would have done so, or that he in any way lost anything by the acts of the defendant, is fatally defective. Sale of the Right of Pbe-emption.—All transfers of the right of pre-emption are void by the statute; and the sale and delivery of possession of the land to another extinguishes all the incipient pre-emption rights which the first occupant may have acquired.</p> <p>Idem.—The purchaser, if he has the proper qualifications, may acquire a new preemption right of his own, provided he can do it before a right should attach in any other person; but it would only date from the time he himself performed the necessary acts.</p> <p>Jurisdiction of State Coubts.—Have the Courts of a State the jurisdiction to review the action of the Federal Land Department in deciding -upon contested claims to the right of pre-emption, when the subject-matter of the investigation, and upon which the preference depend, were transactions that occurred before the contest ? Quere ?</p>